TAURANGA Visioning Session

Just imagine a Monorail between The Mount and Tauranga – off the rail hangs a large number of one man pods. Once you enter a pod you put your feet on the pedals and start a cycling action. This kick starts your ‘Cycopod’ onto the solar powered conveyor belt for your journey to work. As you glide past the Cruise Ship terminal you see the masses of solar panels which have taken the place of terminal building and provide power for the whole of the Mount area. The ships that used to come into the port have long sat dormant in their overseas docks as the price of oil rose to over $400 /barrel around 2018. Sitting in your ‘Cycopod’ you notice a number of other things that have drastically changed in recent years. Below you the streets are now filled with solar powered rickshaws and cyclists – there are very few motorcars to be seen - local bio-fuel is the only option for the motor vehicle these days. The streets have been redesigned for half cyclist/rickshaw powered vehicles and only one single lane for motor traffic with designated passing bays at intervals. As your ‘Cycopod’ progresses on its smooth journey to Tauranga you pass over what was once the container port you see vast acres of crops grown for our local bio-fuel.

In the distance you can see a green and colourful space of community food production. This vast expanse of market garden provides Tauranga / Mount /Papamoa and surrounding areas with much needed food production.  Produce is distributed to localised Farmers Markets which have replaced the old fashion ‘supermarkets’.  It was very sad when the Airport closed to provide this space, but people in the community needed the valuable land resource for permaculture.  Fortunately, there is now a high speed rail link to Auckland - one of only 4 airports left in NZ.

The housing below looks like shining stars in a sea of green as the sun glints off the north facing solar panels within the wealth of home gardens that have popped up since the oil crisis. Backyard gardens have become very productive since the invention of ‘the rain water harvester’ (now free to all).

 You notice your work colleague harvesting fruit from trees along his street and your neighbour appears to be paying for her morning coffee with ‘Tauranga Dollars’. In the last few years our City Council have taken on board the ‘local’ theme, which has meant that the Tauranga/Mount area is now world famous for transitioning the oil crisis and creating a sustainable local model, commonly known as ‘The Tauranga Model’.  

Cottage industries and clean living (carbon free) abound in this localised future world.

The ‘Cycopod’ soars over the bridge and into Tauranga Central with its vibrant community spaces and local traders. It is a bit difficult to get out and leave my pod but I guess I might now have to get back to the corporate globalised society that is 2010.

These are only some of the wonderful visions that were created by members of Transition Town Tauranga at our March meeting. If you are interested in a better, more sustainable Tauranga please come and check us out on the last Thursday of the month at The Environment Centre (7pm to 9pm).